Bed clothes typically include a fitted bottom sheet which may be placed over a mattress and a top sheet which may be placed between a user and other bedding such as blankets, quilts, comforters, or the like. Fitted sheets are preferred over flat sheets because they may be quickly and neatly placed on a mattress without tedious folding and manipulation of the sheet's corners. Further, fitted sheets provide a convenient means for retaining the sheet on the mattress during use. Typically, prior art fitted sheets may be categorized as one of three types.
Perhaps the most commonly used type of fitted sheet comprises an elastic band attached along the ends of the sheet to draw the sheet closed about the sides of a mattress. These elastic bands may, however, be subject to wear after repeated use and may allow the sheet to come loose from the mattress as a user lying thereon changes positions.
A second type of fitted sheet employs generally triangular shaped panels sewn to each corner of the sheet to form corner pockets which hold the corners of the mattress. This type of sheet is most commonly utilized with waterbed mattresses, wherein the corner of the waterbed mattress may be lifted slightly to permit its insertion within the corner pocket. However, such corner pockets typically do not fit well on conventional mattresses and thus may also allow the sheet to come loose from the mattress.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,274 to Cuneo discloses a third type of fitted sheet. This sheet utilizes head and foot end pockets which hold, respectively, the head and foot ends of the mattress. However, both the head and foot end pockets of the Cuneo bottom sheet have a depth at least as great as the thickness of the mattress in order to securely retain the sheet on the mattress. Consequently, if the depth of the pockets is too great, the sheet may be somewhat difficult to place on or remove from the mattress especially if the mattress is utilized in confined areas such as a truck cabin, camper, or recreational vehicle, or, alternatively, if the depth of the pockets is too shallow, the sheet may slip off the mattress during use.
Typically, a top or flat sheet is placed over the fitted bottom sheet between the user and other bedding such as blankets, quilts, comforters, and the like. The top sheet may be tucked beneath the foot end of the mattress when the bed is made. However, top sheets frequently become loose from under the mattress during use, and are inconvenient to tuck in and refold when the bed is again made. Known to the art are bed clothes, made for use with waterbeds, which include a top sheet having a portion of the lower edge attached to a lower end of the fitted sheet. This method of attaching the top sheet to the fitted sheet eliminates many of the problems associated with loose top sheets. However, it fails to address the inconvenience of refolding the top sheet at the lower corner to provide a finished appearance should the waterbed sheet be utilized with a conventional mattress.
Cuneo, supra, also teaches bed clothes for a mattress wherein the top sheet is attached to the bottom sheet. However, because the top sheet of the Cuneo bed clothes is attached to the bottom sheet along the top surface of the mattress, users may find that they cannot extend their feet past the end of the mattress without substantially displacing the top sheet in a direction generally from the head end to the foot end of the mattress. This limitation may prove uncomfortable to many persons who prefer sleeping with their feet extending over the end of the mattress.